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Today’s texts rung a chord in my heart in feeling the need to pray for the roommate of the person I visited in the hospital this past Tuesday afternoon. Coming down (spiritually) from a two day, well-needed retreat of fellowship and prayer, I received an urgent call to visit a parishioner who once again was in the hospital. This time she was in the hospital for pneumonia and MRSA complications…
It’s amazing… but she truly holds her own, that has
always been apparent—a true survivor in many ways. It probably would help if she stopped smoking
as well as cheating on her diabetes diet restrictions since this will now make
about the 4th time she is in the hospital. C’est La Vie! As the
saying goes. You can only inspire and
encourage people to change for the better to care for themselves.
In the midst of my visit with her, she shared stories of
her current living situation which started to sound more or less like a soap
opera. She decided to change roommates,
yet again, to befriend and look after a woman suffering from MS. But even beyond this act of kindness, she did
this to allow her former roommate to become more of the eyes and ears to the
community to ferret out someone who is dealing in drugs! Yikes… A drug dealer in an assisted living facility?
Pretty sad if you ask me.
That wasn’t the most disturbing part of her tale,
however, for she told me about someone who was on their way to being thrown out
of the home for simply keeping her dead husband’s savings bonds a secret. They were only paying a mere $600 a month
that she was hoping to save for her children.
Once the home found out they demanded an extra $1,000 a month or be
thrown out of the home.
Obviously she couldn’t meet their demands though they get
her social security, link card and everything else…. They are throwing out into
the streets, a woman suffering from advanced MS complications. Her daughter isn’t able to take care of her
yet alone pay for what she needs so this woman is facing homelessness as a “punishment”
for trying to save her deceased husband’s saving bonds! How evil and ridiculous is this?
I can only pray that God will provide a solution to
coming to the aid of this woman as well as for the parishioner I visited. It’s a two-way street in regards to what we
choose to do in either caring for ourselves or for our neighbor. Sometimes the sacrifice we demand upon one
another is too much to bear and is frankly a sad commentary on our fallen
nature.
I was glad to hear that the woman I visited was making
the effort to reach out beyond herself to help someone else. It is in many ways a spiritual milestone for
her since she has been immersed in a self-destructive pattern for quite some time. If you have nearly everyone coming to your
rescue, constantly contributing to your every want and need. That frankly becomes sociopathic behavior in
the sense that the person needs to continually be enabled by the kindness and
charity of others without in essence being grateful or extending the self in
return to others.
If that pattern of expectation is allowed to continue
unchecked, it, in turn, alienates others away and creates a purposelessness to
this person’s future. I don’t know about
you but I would call that true purgatory.
The Kingdom of God, the landscape of heaven is the land of GRACE. Yes,
Grace, that all-caps “Hollywood-sized sign” reality of the heart turned to God,
given to God as our faith.
Living into faith, no holds barred requires a “priceless”
attitude. It is a stewardship of the
heart to produce the beautiful fruits of the Kingdom—Love, mercy, forgiveness,
kindness, compassion, hospitality, generosity etc. Today’s Old Testament text
shares a beginning story of another widow who meets the demanding Elijah’s
needs for food and drink. He sort of
sounds like an inconsiderate jerk here but actually God in the end provides to
feed them all for several days till the rains came.
The Gospel text for today is quite powerful as well. It features yet another widow, whose moxie
has her pushing past all of her culture’s oppressors to put her pittance into
the offering plate. It wasn’t about the money more than it was about her
priceless attitude of being grateful, living into grace—living into true faith.
Living into true faith—let’s dissect this to understand
it more clearly, spiritually and profoundly.
Living—the act of being alive, a creature of God, a child of Grace and
promise plus the preposition into. Into
literally means: to or toward the inside of (something) or in the direction of
(something) plus true. True or being true as it is implied here means real or
genuine or having all the expected or necessary qualities of a specified type
of person or thing. Applying the fullness of the meaning of being true to faith
we have a profound sense of trust, hope, encouragement and graciousness. So in combining and hearing the expanded
definition of all of these words—living into true faith is literally living
selflessly for God and neighbor with a beautiful purpose and a beautiful goal—how
wonderful is that?!
The above equation came out of our Bible study the other
evening when we were once again looking at the ‘Wired Word.’ The topic for the evening was what our
perception individually is of not only what Jesus’ looks like but what it means
to be Christ-like. We can say and create
beautiful statements of faith but if your heart doesn’t do the grammar work to
truly understand what you’re saying then we have a problem.
That was the scribes and Pharisees’ problem, they were
definitely into paying God lip service but their hearts were far away from God
as Jesus points out on several occasions their hypocrisy. Jesus basically likens them to a bunch of
money hungry vultures seeking the weak and defenseless to fund their agendas…
Which like the story I shared in the beginning about this assisted living
facility—they’re obviously, even in title, being hypocritical to meeting the
task of care and concern they claim to represent!
If we can’t go there in being truthful yet alone genuine
in our faith journey—what are we really accomplishing as Jesus’ disciples? I’m not up here every Sunday morning “playing”
church; I am living “church” as a beautiful faith God has given me through the
Grace of Jesus—my crucified Lord and Savior—the ultimate sacrifice!
As in the informative discussions in the retreat I
attended on Monday and Tuesday, what kind of faith do you really have? Is it all about being grounded in dogma or
doctrine or as my faith is, is it grounded in the Spirit? Being grounded in or by the Holy Spirit is
something we Lutherans have to face the music and BE a bold witness in
proclaiming its profound truth, period!
Long flowing robes, songs and rituals are one thing we can share as a
culture of faith together…. But being, living into true faith is born and built
in the heart/ soul of the believer to be shared without reservation, agenda or
worldly gain.
As a former or renewed/ reborn artist I am living into a
New Natured culture. This culture is
where Christ Jesus is the center of everything to my being and ultimate
purpose. If you or I can’t go there in
what we are compelled by the Gospel do through faith; then we are failing one
another as well as God’s hopes for us. We have been called to be stewards of
the Gospel, acolytes, servers, deacons to the high Priest—Jesus. Our faithful and gracious response is all God
is hoping for us to live true to.
Let us pray—
Gracious and Loving Savior,
May our hearts always know this, deeply
May we live into our faith, deeply
May we realize what the world deems priceless
Is not what the Kingdom of God deems as priceless
Help our lives to be shaped to a stewardship of service
To develop a priceless attitude of gratitude
In all we say and do for Your Grace and Glory
AMEN
November 8th,
2015; 24th Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 27; Year B; SOLA Lectionary
Sermon by
Reverend Nicole A. M. Collins
Psalm 146; 1
Kings 17:8-16; Hebrews 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
Below is a link to the delivery at the Grace Hub Discipleship Ministries' house church service 8am:
https://youtu.be/Q1khOw8ZjLI
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